Presenters
Renae McNamara
Dr Renae McNamara is a clinical specialist physiotherapist in pulmonary rehabilitation at the Prince of Wales Hospital. She is also a post-doctoral research fellow at The University of Sydney and the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. She completed her PhD examining water-based exercise in people with COPD with physical comorbidities. Renae has played a pivotal role in the NSW Health Agency For Clinical Innovation (ACI) and Lung Foundation Australia's response to supporting clinicians to deliver safe, effective and high quality healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Renae is a leader in delivering pulmonary telerehabilitation and water-based pulmonary rehabilitation, and is one of the lead authors of many NSW ACI guidelines developed in response to COVID-19 including 'Delivering pulmonary rehabilitation via telehealth during COVID-19', 'Rehabilitation of COVID-19 in the pulmonary rehabilitation setting, Re-opening of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services' and 'Respiratory physiotherapy aerosol generating procedures'.
Rita Hwang
Rita has been a physiotherapist with the Heart Recovery Service, at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, since its inception in 2006. She has a special interest in exercise training in patients with heart failure and has played a role in many research projects within that service. Rita has completed her PhD in 2017 on heart failure telerehabilitation.